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 From the CAD Supply Corner 
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Autodesk Revit Building 8/8.1
Starting in March 2005, Autodesk Revit officially became a platform rather than a single product. This was when Autodesk released version 8 of its BIM application for architectural design, now known as Autodesk Revit Building rather than just Autodesk Revit. This was followed in June by the first release of Autodesk Revit Structure, a BIM application for structural engineering built on the Revit platform. A third Revit-based application for MEP engineering is currently under development. By expanding the scope of Revit from architectural design alone to a platform that can support collaborative multi-disciplinary building design, Autodesk has successfully addressed what has been one of Revit's biggest limitations so far. Revit can now realize the full potential of BIM in enabling cross-disciplinary collaboration, with architects and engineers using the same building model and the same modeling tools for building design.
Last month, Autodesk released updated versions of both its Revit platform products: Revit Building 8.1 and Revit Structure 2. The main enhancement in these two releases is that they are interoperable with each other, allowing architects and engineers to work in a more integrated manner.
AECbytes is publishing back-to-back, consolidated reviews of both these products. The current issue looks at the new features in the main Revit Building 8 release and the updated 8.1 version, while in the next issue, we will look at Revit Structure 1 and the new integrating capability in Revit Structure 2.
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And the winner is ...
They say spring is a time for renewal. However, I need to start this off with a little bit of old business. Speaking of business, things are going even faster and better than I predicted a few months ago. Not to brag, but this is just the "recovery" I ordered last year. You are welcome.
The gang from Lee Tilford Agency won the Calendar contest. Congratulations Pinky. You advertising guys have way too much time on your hands! They answered 40 correct. Feel free to go to the following calendar page for a complete listing. They are the proud owners of a $100 gift certificate. How they plan to split that up is beyond me. I greatly appreciate the kind words and enthusiasm regarding the calendars. They are a ton of work every year and it’s nice to hear they are appreciated. By the way, I am the guy with the crown -- right next to the artist Jay French -- lower right hand corner. You know ... King Chris. Amazing how quickly Jay picked up on that huh?
The response to the scanner request was overwhelming. We have never had that many people respond to anything. Heck, I didn't even know that many people actually read what I write. Now I have the task of taking an idea in its infancy and making everything happen. I am diligently looking for someone to head up this project. If you know of someone, please send them my way ... FAST.
After the departure of my original equipment salesman Anthony Rapps (and we wish him good fortune in his return to Florida), I have taken over the reins of selling the equipment. I know, I have been trying to get out of the selling game for a while, but hey, it is actually fun to try it for a little while. So now the pressure is ON. Anyone out there looking to buy a plotter, LED copier, scanner, or anything else "big", give me a call. I have a quota to meet!!!
This week we are having our Service Team trained in color management. After this week we will have FOUR (4) people able to manage your color. I believe this will greatly assist us in getting to everyone sooner. We will work with the graphic applications first and then help everyone else. This is going to be one of the most exciting ventures we have tried yet!
Thanks for the time. Now get back to work.
J Christopher Epstein
President
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High Tech Cheesecloth
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Back in the day artwork was something that you picked up in a big envelope; the copy on crescent board and the color transparencies that had to be scanned. And it was shot with a process camera as line work or halftones, or scanned with a scanner, then assembled on a light table by a stripper, proofed, plated and taken to press.
But after the crash of the market in Dallas I spent several years selling equipment, when I came back a press was still a press but everything in front of it was different, one of the terms that I kept hearing but didn't understand at all was RIP.
What's a RIP? What does it do? Sure seemed important because you had to have one. And everyone talked about them. And it sure seemed like it'd be a good thing to know what they are and understand them. So I looked up definitions and asked people and basically all I got was "it's a raster image processor." Well thanks for that, but what does that mean exactly? Well, it means that it takes the image in your computer and makes it into dots. That's what rasterize means. Well, um, okay, but I thought that's what Photoshop did.
Sometime along in here, I got to reading an article about the very early days of half toning -- and half toning is the very fore-runner to rasterizing. And way back, when printers were first learning to reproduce photographs on press, they would lay a piece of cheesecloth over the line film in their lithe cameras. When they made the exposure, the cheesecloth broke the continuous tone image into dots that could be reproduced by the press. The very first halftone screens, these cheese cloths, were also the first RIPs.
So for whatever reason that description stuck. What's a RIP? It's high-tech cheesecloth. But about that other question. Why do you need to convert your image to dots at all? Isn't that what Photoshop does? Well, yes and no. Stay tuned.
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Furthering our discovery into How Inkjet Plotters Work, let's take a closer look at what's inside an inkjet plotter:
Inside an Inkjet Plotter
Parts of a typical inkjet plotter include:
- Print head assembly
- Print head - The core of an inkjet plotter, the print head contains a series of nozzles that are used to spray drops of ink.
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| Print head assembly |
- Ink cartridges - Depending on the manufacturer and model of the plotter, ink cartridges come in various combinations, such as separate printheads and cartridges. The cartridges of some inkjet plotters include the print head itself.
- Print head stepper motor - A stepper motor moves the print head assembly (print head and ink cartridges) back and forth across the paper. Some plotters have another stepper motor to park the print head assembly when the plotter is not in use. Parking means that the print head assembly is restricted from accidentally moving, like a parking brake on a car.
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| Stepper motors like this one control the movement of most parts of an inkjet plotter. |
- Belt - A belt is used to attach the print head assembly to the stepper motor.
- Stabilizer bar - The print head assembly uses a stabilizer bar to ensure that movement is precise and controlled.
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| Here you can see the stabilizer bar and belt. |
- Paper feed assembly
- Rollers - A set of rollers pull the paper in from the tray or feeder and advance the paper when the print head assembly is ready for another pass.
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| The rollers move the paper through the plotter. |
- Paper feed stepper motor - The stepper motor powers the rollers to move the paper in the exact increment needed to ensure a continuous image is printed.
- Control circuitry - A small but sophisticated amount of circuitry is built into the plotter to control all the mechanical aspects of operation, as well as decode the information sent to the plotter from the computer.
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| The mechanical operation of the plotter is controlled by a small circuit board containing a microprocessor and memory. |
- Interface port(s) - Most plotters use a network connection, commonly Ethernet. A few plotters connect using a serial port or small computer system interface (SCSI) port.
In the next issue, we will look at Paper & Ink.
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